Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Winter Walk

The unseasonably cold weather has finally broken. I took advantage of the warm weather to take a long overdue Winter Walk through Rutgers Gardens. It's something that I've wanted to do every since I took a Fall Foliage Stroll through the Gardens some time ago. As much as I enjoyed the colors of the foliage, I found myself more intrigued by the shapes of the branches. I've been meaning to come back when the trees were bare to get some pictures of the interesting patterns that they form.

I wasn't disappointed. Everywhere I looked, up down right left, I saw intricate spider webs of branches. Without the distraction of colorful foliage and lush undergrowth, I found myself noticing more details like bark:Mindful of the Mushroom Walk last fall, I kept an eye out for fungi.And, like my previous walk in the woods, I found myself wondering about its secret life. What is going on here?

After my walk in the woods, I headed over to the pond that was so pretty in the fall. Now it looks forlorn. Some plants are at their best in the bareness of winter. I have previously posted about my disappointment on discovering that there is no such thing as the first robin of spring. They are around all year. In the winter, their diet changes to berries. As I passed through the holly grove, I was dumbfounded by the number of robins I saw. Every one of the specks in those trees is a robin. They are concentrated here because of the berries on the hollies. I passed through the holly grove to get to a part of the Gardens that I had never visited. It is an old greenhouse that will one day be renovated or replaced. I wanted to get some pictures of it before it disappeared or changed. Before leaving, I went to visit my favorite little bridge in the Native Plant Garden. I really like this picture for some reason. The nice thing about digital cameras is that they allow you to take as many pictures as you have the time, patience and/or batteries for. That's a good thing for a beginner photographer like myself because occasionally I get the most amazing pictures, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. This one was intentional but it came out even better than I had anticipated: I haven't touched this photo. The greens really all are on one side.